A problem occasionally encountered by aircraft is collision with birds. This can result in birds being drawn into one or more of the aircraft engines and impacting engine components. The present invention is concerned with design of fuel injector components of the combustor of a gas turbine engine to resist bird impact.
Modern gas turbine engine combustors incorporate an annular combustion chamber into which fuel is directed from a series of fuel injectors spaced apart around the combustion chamber. These fuel injectors are liable to damage by impact from birds or other solid objects drawn into the front of the engine through the compressor stage of the engine. In order to minimise such damage, fuel injectors require to be designed to resist a direct impact without undergoing deformation or damage and without causing fuel leakage. Consequently fuel injectors require to be constructed from high strength materials and to be of robust construction. As a result they are relatively heavy, expensive to produce and bulky, and produce an impediment to and a pressure loss in air flow to the combustion chamber.